MBCC Captains Report

The day began uncertain as the weather forecast showed a significant possibility of rain and we were unsure if we even had enough players for a team. On Saturday the number was confirmed at 7 and after a couple of "last minute" calls it remained unchanged at 7 in honour of Magic Maribor! As it was a Sunday morning, we agreed that 08:30 would be a reasonable time to meet but with a one-hour wait (i.e. 9:30) due to the typical Mariborian delays, we set off to the hills and valleys of Koroska. 

Upon arrival at the battle ground, Mežica KK greeted us with a warm eager smile despite nursing a few wounds from Saturday's double header against Velden.  Those with slightly deeper wounds needed an additional 15 minutes for morning physio treatment (or snooze!). In the end Mežica's 9 and Maribor's 7 were ready for the battle to commence...

The Maribor team had a small conference to decide upon a new captain, here it was decided that the most beautiful and talented Greg Bohinc would captain the side for the match and a seasons captain would be decided at a later date. United under the guise of democracy we also determined the batting order and selected the enthusiastic Luis Roland as the new rookie wicket keeper. The gods favoured us in the coin toss and determined to put up a good score we decided to bat first. 

"Bad start, good ending" is a Slovenian proverb that sometimes adheres. In this case although victory was not secured, the proverb still came true. The bad start came in the form of opening batsman Jernej Zumer partnered by Paul FreeBairn. The score for Žumer this time was in the form of a diamond duck!  He was “Caught behind" with the slightest of nicks on the bottom of the bat straight into the gloves of grateful wicket keeper Čegovnik Borut from the bowling of Primoz Pustoslemšek. He was replaced by batsman Gasper Bakač, who was even more unlucky. Facing only his third delivery, a very slow ball from Rudi somehow managed to loop three times around the waist, twice around the leg, through the inner bowels and pop out straight onto the stumps. Bowled! Bakač was succeeded by David Cox, Cox with an injured leg used Bakač as his gutsy runner . Paul and David then showed their English spirit by producing the strongest partnership of the innings (including a substantial number of wides!) by knocking up some runs. After a couple of boundaries Paul was bowled and was succeeded by Domen, Domen after a promising few knocks was caught while attempting a trademark boundary and was replaced by Luis, Luis after facing his first ball in Slovenian, or any other, league cricket made a useful and proud score. He was then replaced by Grega after being trapped LBW. David was the team’s top scorer with an unbeaten 21. The final total was 90 runs with a substantial contribution coming from extras from the bowlers!

Mezicas innings began in good spirit. After an expensive first two overs, Maribor quickly adapted their tactics, fielding and bowling, to cover more of the off side. The constant rotation of bowlers (Gašper, Domen, Jernej and Grego) helped to confuse the opposing team's batters and allowed us throughout the innings, a relatively well-managed performance. The bowlers were able to keep the score down despite a thin field with only 6 fielders including wicketkeeper. The match was close and with no more wickets to spare, after some tight and punishing deliveries from Gasper and Grega, Mezica finally made their target with a satisfactory 92-7. Praise especially to Gašper Bakač, for some superb maiden overs and 4 wickets. Respect to Luis who took up the wicket keeper gloves for the first time and with some unorthodox keeping managed to get in the way of almost everything.

Despite the defeat the post-match socialising remained positive and upbeat, which in fact is more important than anything else! Congratulations and thanks to everyone in the Maribor team, we played well as a team, put in some great performances, kept the team spirit high and in the end despite having two less players than our opposition could have possibly nicked a victory. 

The match was refereed by Paul Freebairn, Greg Bohinc, Rožej Mirko and Primoz pustoslemšek. Criteria for judging wides was deemed to be too strict but was balanced between the two teams. Decisions in general were agreed to be quite honest and correct. In the future, however, it was agreed that a neutral umpire would be beneficial to all but to achieve this will be difficult. A reimbursement of travel costs, free candy and beer is the best we can offer ;) 

In true Slovenian style the recording of the score was a little dubious at times in favour of the scoring team :). However in the end after some mistakes "no Harm Done".

In short, the weather turned out fine and the match was fun. Thank you Mežica for the entertainment and hospitality and see you next time for a Maribor victory!

RESULTS --> SL - 2012.04.15 - Mežica CC beat Maribor CC by 1 Wicket - Results

for MBCC writen by Grega T. Bohinc, translation by David Cox